David Wetzel

Laguna Beach High School

Class of 1967

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David Wetzel - Class of 1967 - Laguna Beach High School

First Name	David
Last Name	Wetzel
Graduation Year	Class of 1967
Gender	Male
City	N/A
State/Province	CA
Country	United States
Occupation	Inventor / Self Unemployed
Favorite School Memory	Prom & Graduation, thankyou Merrilee
About Me	David Wetzel, the inventor of The Living Water Solar Powered Water Purefication System for home and missions and the utility scale Sea Water Desalination System, the Celestial Diamond Guitar, Silicon Slate. I was raised in a home which encouraged his natural creative inventor talents. In grade school he took a special interest in science and by sixth grade he had discovered his aptitude for engineering. As a teen, Mr. Wetzel admired Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Nicholi Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, and a host of other inventors and innovators. Mr. Wetzel began preparing for his career as an inventor by making balsa wood gliders and planes and ornate laminated skateboards. This led him into the scienctific study of the dynamics of weather, gravity, magnetics, electrical, thermal and solar energy, the hydrologic cycle, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics and the natural interplay of energy harmonics between materials, and geometry. As a DRAFTED soldier I want to thank the God Almighty and our fellow LBHS Classmate Tim Anderson for couching me in my selection of military path. A great guy and friend, who along with the hand of God miraculously saved my life in Vietnam, a number of times. achieving E-4 Cpl. in less than 9 months at Ft. Polk Louisiana,the Armies 4th Infantry Division in Viet Nam, he was decorated with a Bronze Star and promoted for his mastery and excellence as a Ballistics Meterologist. Later he was transfered to the 101st Airborne Divisions Tactical Operations Center aka. "war room" where he was assigned the postition of Combat Flight Controller. Again for his excellence, "above and beyond the call of duty", he was decorated with a second Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster. As a citizen, David Wetzel and his Dad wereawarded meritorious service recognition by the City of Laguna Beach, for directly saving eight of his neighbors homes in "The Great Laguna Beach Fire" of 1993. His ingenuity and quick and courageous actions stopped a domino effect that had already taken out 366 homes and due to the heavy 60-70 mph Santana Wind conditions, was hungry to take out as many as 10,000 more. As activist and member of Veterans For Peace, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, he heard the cry for help and within a few days he and a team of more than 100 combat veterans with trucks and vans loaded to capacity, converged to help distribute relief supplies throughout the devastated region. Years later the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was a call to action. After BPs many failed attempts to plug the pipe, David drew on his past education at LBHS Mr. Kuntz, Harvard Project Physic, course and his experience at the Southern Counties / California Gas Co.s and devised a means to plug the pipe. BP being so arrogant was pretty much ignoring all outside solutions and for months on end, were basing their theories on faulty assumptions. To fund an adventure to make certain contact and to be heard, I sold my 67 VW Bug to a buyer in So. Carolina and my son Erik and I delivered it, driving it through Baton Rouge, Houma and New Orleans. Homing in on CNNs live news reports down by the Old Muddy, met with Anderson Cooper and some others, sharing our story and being referred to Darryl Bergeorn at LSUs (DWD) deep water drilling institute. We made an appointment with Darryl and showed up about 1/2 hour early and BPs top DWD engineer, John Rogers Smith )yes that is his real name), showed up and I struck a deal with him for, one tenth of one percent of the fines saved, resulting from the information I was about to share with him, he responded with, "Sure! Show what you got". I had put together a binder of information for show and tell and walked him through a few of the first pages a photo of the explosion, the oil slik rainbow on the surface of the water and a satalite view map of just how large this catastrophy had gotten and how it wasn't actually the 70,000 PSI number that they were basing all their calculations on. He said that's impossible! I then showed him photos of the "live feed" and how the oil was gushing and immediately luffi g into a cloud as it left the pipe. Still, "Not buyin it." Then I showed him a screen shot of the oil luffing and the eal swiming in and out of the warm oil. Erik watched his jaw drop to the floor and hurried off saying l've got a few calls to make. Two days later Coast Guard Commander, Thad Allen (ret.) announced that there was almost no oil left to be collected. Still waiting for my $61 million. Anybody in Billing and Collections out there? As a civilian, Mr. Wetzel became a prodigious Inventor and Machinist. As an engineer/machinist for McDonnell Douglas AeroSpace and Solar operations in the early to mid 1970s, he invented, designed and built many important advances in tooling and technology, including the nuts for the Space Shuttle program. Every time the Space Shuttle launches, the nuts with explosive bolts are called into service to hold the massive Solid Rocket Boosters and Shuttle assembly erect for launch. During that same time period, his father, Grant was the West Coast representative for Hach Co., the first and foremost manufacturer of water test equipment. He was continually bringing home samples of water from his various clients. The samples demonstrated a very rapid rate of decline in water quality. David saw this as a wide open opportunity to make a difference. He formulated a plan to develop the most cost-effective, high-performance and energy-efficient water purification system under the sun. David diligently researched all the various forms of water treatment throughout history. He studied water filled copper vessels sitting in the sun, freezing and electrodialysis of water, micro-filtration, reverse osmosis and multi-effect boiling, etc. Solar Distillation proved to be the best solution. David then researched every solar distillation system he could find in prior history, gleaning only the best design features, he fabricated the tooling to build his revolutionary new design. He prepared and made the tooling ready to construct the first unit on the next morning, but that evening he was blessed with a dynamic 3-D vision of something entirely different than anything he had ever seen before. The geometry was so elegant and efficient that he knew that this was the design that he needed to produce. Hence, the birth of the Living Water Solar System. On the roof of the family home is the original unit that has been in continuous and almost maintenance-free operation for nearly 3 decades. Over the years, David has made a number of modifications and refinements to the original design. Now he has developed concepts for a full range of solar powered residential appliances. They include: home water purification, water and space heating, photo voltaics and solar lighting. He also has concepts for disaster relief, village projects and a full utility scale Solar Powered Only, Hybrid Sea Water Desalinat...(read more)